Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, amending Regulations (EU) No 1296/2013, (EU) No 1301/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1304/2013, (EU) No 1309/2013, (EU) No 1316/2013, (EU) No 223/2014, (EU) No 283/2014, and Decision No 541/2014/EU and repealing Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012

Without prejudice to sector-specific rules for shared management, revenue, including dividends, capital gains, guarantee fees and interest on loans and on amounts on fiduciary accounts paid back to the Commission or on fiduciary accounts opened for financial instruments or budgetary guarantees and attributable to the support from the budget under a financial instrument or a budgetary guarantee, shall be entered in the budget after deduction of management costs and fees.

The authorising officer responsible for a financial instrument, a budgetary guarantee or a financial assistance shall produce a financial statement covering the period 1 January to 31 December, in accordance with Article 243 and in compliance with the accounting rules referred to in Article 80 and the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).

The financial liability and aggregate net payments from the budget shall not exceed at any time:

Budgetary guarantees and financial assistance may generate a contingent liability for the Union which shall only exceed the financial assets provided to cover the financial liability of the Union if provided for in a basic act establishing a budgetary guarantee or financial assistance and under the conditions set out therein.

For the purposes of the annual assessment provided for in point (j) of Article 41(5), the contingent liabilities arising from budgetary guarantees or financial assistance borne by the budget shall be deemed sustainable, if their forecast multiannual evolution is compatible with the limits set by the regulation laying down the multiannual financial framework provided for in Article 312(2) TFEU and the ceiling on annual payment appropriations set out in Article 3(1) of Decision 2014/335/EU, Euratom.

For budgetary guarantees and financial assistance to third countries, a basic act shall set out a provisioning rate as a percentage of the amount of the financial liability authorised. That amount shall exclude the contributions referred to in Article 208(2).

The setting of a provisioning rate shall be guided by a qualitative and quantitative assessment by the Commission of the financial risks arising from a budgetary guarantee or a financial assistance to a third country in accordance with the principle of prudence, whereby assets and profits shall not be overestimated and liabilities and losses shall not be underestimated.

For a financial instrument provision shall be made, where appropriate, to respond to future payments related to a budgetary commitment of that financial instrument.

The following resources shall contribute to the provisioning:

Provisions shall be used for the payment of:

Where the provisions for a budgetary guarantee exceed the amount of provisioning resulting from the provisioning rate referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, resources referred to in points (b), (c) and (d) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 4 of this Article related to that guarantee shall be used within the limits of the eligible period provided for in the basic act, however, not beyond the constitution phase of the provisioning, and without prejudice to Article 213(4), to restore the budgetary guarantee up to its initial amount.

The Commission shall immediately inform the European Parliament and the Council and may propose adequate replenishment measures or an increase of the provisioning rate where:

The provisions made to cover the financial liabilities arising from financial instruments, budgetary guarantees or financial assistance shall be held in a common provisioning fund.

Global profits or losses from the investment of the resources held in the common provisioning fund shall be allocated proportionately among the respective financial instruments, budgetary guarantees or financial assistance.

Pursuant to point (d) of the first subparagraph of Article 77(1) and Article 86(1) and (2), the accounting officer shall set up the procedures to be applied to the revenue and expenditure operations and, in agreement with the financial manager of the resources of the common provisioning fund, to the assets and liabilities related to the common provisioning fund.

In the exceptional cases where the Commission has made a transfer as referred to in point (g) of the first subparagraph of Article 30(1), the Commission shall immediately inform the European Parliament and the Council thereof, and shall urgently propose the measures necessary to restore the budgetary item of the guarantee from which the transfer was made, while fully respecting the ceilings provided for in the regulation laying down the multiannual financial framework.

The provisioning of budgetary guarantees and financial assistance to third countries in the common provisioning fund shall be based on an effective provisioning rate. That rate shall provide a level of protection against the financial liabilities of the Union equivalent to the level that would be provided by the respective provisioning rates if the resources where held and managed separately.

The effective provisioning rate applicable shall be a percentage of each initial provisioning rate determined in accordance with the second subparagraph of Article 211(2). It shall apply only to the amount of resources in the common provisioning fund foreseen for the payment of guarantee calls over a one year period. It shall provide for a ratio, in the form of a percentage, between the amount of cash and cash equivalents in the common provisioning fund required to honour guarantee calls and the total amount of cash and cash equivalents that would be required in each guarantee fund to honour guarantee calls, if the resources were held and managed separately, where both amounts represent an equivalent liquidity risk. That ratio shall not fall below 95 %. The calculation of the effective provisioning rate shall take into account:

The effective provisioning rate shall be calculated annually by the financial manager of the resources of the common provisioning fund and shall be the reference for the Commission’s calculation of the contributions from the budget pursuant to point (a) of Article 211(4) and, subsequently, point (b) of paragraph 4 of this Article.

Following the calculation of the annual effective provisioning rate in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article, the following operations in the context of the budgetary procedure shall be made and presented in the working document referred to in point (h) of Article 41(5):

After having consulted the accounting officer, the Commission shall establish the guidelines applicable to the management of the resources in the common provisioning fund in accordance with appropriate prudential rules and excluding derivative operations for speculative purposes. Those guidelines shall be attached to the agreement with the financial manager of the resources of the common provisioning fund.

In addition to the reporting obligation laid down in Article 250, the Commission shall report annually to the European Parliament and to the Council on the common provisioning fund.

The financial manager of the resources of the common provisioning fund shall report annually to the European Parliament and to the Council on the common provisioning fund.

Notwithstanding Article 208(1), financial instruments may be established, in duly justified cases, without being authorised by means of a basic act, provided that such instruments are included in the draft budget in accordance with point (e) of the first subparagraph of Article 41(4).

Where financial instruments or budgetary guarantees are combined within a single agreement with ancillary support from the budget, including grants, this Title shall apply to the whole measure. The reporting shall be carried out in accordance with Article 250 and shall clearly identify which parts of the measure are financial instruments or budgetary guarantees.

The Commission shall ensure a harmonised and simplified management of financial instruments, in particular in the area of accounting, reporting, monitoring and financial risk management.

Where the Union participates in a financial instrument as a minority stakeholder, the Commission shall ensure compliance with this Title in accordance with the principle of proportionality, on the basis of the size and value of the participation of the Union in the instrument. However, irrespective of the size and value of the Union participation in the instrument, the Commission shall ensure compliance with Articles 129 and 155, Article 209(2) and (4), Article 250 and, insofar as the exclusion situations referred to in point (d) of Article 136(1) are concerned, Section 2 of Chapter 2 of Title V.

Where the European Parliament or the Council consider that a financial instrument has not achieved its objectives effectively, they may request that the Commission submit a proposal for a revised basic act with a view to winding down the instrument. In the event of the winding down of the financial instrument, any new amount paid back to that instrument pursuant to Article 209(3) shall be considered as general revenue and returned to the budget.

The purpose of the financial instruments or a grouping of financial instruments on a facility level and, where applicable, their specific legal form and place of registration shall be published on the Commission website.

Entities entrusted with the implementation of financial instruments may open fiduciary accounts within the meaning of Article 85(3) on behalf of the Union. Those entities shall send the corresponding account statements to the Commission’s responsible service. Payments to fiduciary accounts shall be made by the Commission on the basis of payment requests that are duly substantiated with disbursement forecasts, taking into account the balances available on the fiduciary accounts and the need to avoid excessive balances on such accounts.

Financial instruments may be directly implemented pursuant to point (a) of the first subparagraph of Article 62(1) through any of the following:

Dedicated investment vehicles referred to in point (a) of paragraph 1 shall be established pursuant to the laws of a Member State. In the field of external actions, they may also be established pursuant to the laws of a country other than a Member State. The managers of such vehicles shall be obliged by law or contractually to act with the diligence of a professional manager and in good faith.

The managers of dedicated investment vehicles referred to in point (a) of paragraph 1 and financial intermediaries or final recipients of financial instruments shall be selected with due account to the nature of the financial instrument to be implemented, the experience and the financial and operational capacity of the entities concerned, and the economic viability of projects of final recipients. The selection shall be transparent, justified on objective grounds and shall not give rise to a conflict of interests.

Separate records shall be kept for contributions to financial instruments established under this Section from funds implemented under shared management.

Contributions from funds implemented under shared management shall be placed in separate accounts and used in accordance with the objectives of the respective funds to actions and final recipients consistent with the programme or programmes from which contributions are made.

As regards contributions from funds implemented under shared management to financial instruments established under this Section, sector-specific rules shall apply. Notwithstanding the first sentence, managing authorities may rely on an existing ex ante evaluation, carried out in accordance with point (h) of the first subparagraph and the second subparagraph of Article 209(2), prior to contributing to an existing financial instrument.

The basic act shall define:

Contributions from Member States to budgetary guarantees pursuant to Article 208(2) may be provided in the form of guarantees or cash.

Budgetary guarantees shall be irrevocable, unconditional and on demand for the types of operations covered.

Budgetary guarantees shall be implemented pursuant to point (c) of the first subparagraph of Article 62(1) or, in exceptional cases, pursuant to point (a) of the first subparagraph of Article 62(1).

A budgetary guarantee shall only cover financing and investment operations which comply with points (a) to (d) of the first subparagraph of Article 209(2).

Counterparts shall contribute with their own resources to the operations covered by the budgetary guarantee.

The Commission shall conclude a guarantee agreement with the counterpart. The granting of the budgetary guarantee is subject to the entry into force of the guarantee agreement.

Counterparts shall provide the Commission annually with:

Financial assistance by the Union to Member States or third countries shall be in accordance with pre-defined conditions and take the form of a loan or a credit line or any other instrument deemed appropriate to ensure the effectiveness of the support. To that end, the Commission shall be empowered, in the relevant basic act, to borrow the necessary funds on behalf of the Union on the capital markets or from financial institutions.

The financial assistance shall be carried out in euro, except in duly justified cases.

The financial assistance shall be directly implemented by the Commission.

The Commission shall conclude an agreement with the beneficiary country that shall contain provisions:

The Commission shall release the loans, where possible in instalments, subject to the fulfilment of the conditions attached to the financial assistance. Where those conditions are not fulfilled, the Commission shall temporarily suspend or cancel the disbursement of the financial assistance.

The Commission shall implement a diversified funding strategy comprising the borrowings authorised under Article 5(1) of Council Decision (EU, Euratom) 2020/2053 ([^E0027]) and, except in duly justified cases, borrowing and debt management operations to fund programmes of financial assistance. The diversified funding strategy shall be implemented through all necessary transactions aiming at a regular capital market presence, shall be based on pooling of funding instruments and shall make use of a common liquidity pool.

The Commission shall establish the necessary arrangements for the implementation of the diversified funding strategy. The Commission shall regularly and comprehensively inform the European Parliament and the Council about all aspects of its borrowing and debt management strategy.

Contributions shall be used to reimburse only the percentage set out in Article 17(4) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014 of the operating costs of European political parties directly linked to objectives of those parties, as specified in Article 17(5) of that Regulation and Article 21 of that Regulation.

Contributions may be used to reimburse expenditure relating to contracts concluded by European political parties, provided that there were no conflicts of interests when they were awarded.

Contributions shall not be used to directly or indirectly grant any personal advantage, in cash or in kind, to any individual member or member of staff of a European political party. Contributions shall not be used to directly or indirectly finance activities of third parties, in particular national political parties or political foundations at European or national level, whether in the form of grants, donations, loans or any other similar agreements. For the purposes of this paragraph, associated entities of European political parties shall not be regarded as third parties, where such entities are part of the administrative organisation of European political parties as set out in the statutes of the latter. Contributions shall not be used for any of the purposes excluded by Article 22 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014.

Contributions shall be subject to the principles of transparency and equal treatment, in accordance with the criteria laid down in Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014.

Contributions shall be awarded by the European Parliament on an annual basis and shall be published in accordance with Article 38(1) to (4) of this Regulation and with Article 32(1) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014.

European political parties receiving a contribution shall not directly or indirectly receive other funding from the budget. In particular, donations from the budgets of political groups in the European Parliament shall be prohibited. In no circumstances shall the same expenditure be financed twice by the budget.

If a European political foundation as defined in point (4) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014 realises a surplus of income over expenditure at the end of a financial year in which it received an operating grant, the part of that surplus corresponding to up to 25 % of the total income for that year may be carried over to the following year provided that it is used before the end of the first quarter of that following year.

Contributions shall be awarded through a call for contributions published each year, at least on the website of the European Parliament.

A European political party may be awarded only one contribution per year.

A European political party may receive a contribution only if it applies for funding on the terms and conditions laid down in the call for contributions.

The call for contributions shall determine the conditions under which the applicant may receive a contribution in accordance with Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014, as well as the exclusion criteria.

The call for contributions shall determine, at least, the nature of the expenditure that may be reimbursed by the contribution.

The call for contributions shall require an estimated budget.

Applications for contributions shall be duly submitted within the time limit, in writing, including, where appropriate, in a secure electronic format.

Contributions shall not be awarded to applicants who, at the time of the award procedure, are in one or more of the situations referred to in Articles 136(1) and 141(1) and those who are registered as excluded in the database referred to in Article 142.

Applicants shall be required to certify that they are not in one of the situations referred to in paragraph 2.

The authorising officer responsible may be assisted by a committee to evaluate the applications for contributions. The authorising officer responsible shall specify the rules regarding the composition, appointment and functioning of such committee, and the rules to prevent any conflict of interests.

Applications that comply with the eligibility and exclusion criteria shall be selected on the basis of the award criteria set out in Article 19 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014.

The decision of the authorising officer responsible on the applications shall state at least:

The authorising officer responsible shall inform applicants in writing of the decision on their applications. If the application for funding is rejected or the amounts requested are not awarded in part or in full, the authorising officer responsible shall give the reasons for either the rejection of the application or the non-award of the amounts requested, with reference in particular to the eligibility and award criteria referred to in paragraph 5 of this Article and Article 224(4). If the application is rejected, the authorising officer responsible shall inform the applicant of the available means of administrative and/or judicial redress as provided for in Article 133(2).

Contributions shall be covered by a written agreement.

Contributions may take any of the following forms:

Only expenditure which meets the criteria established in the calls for contributions and which has not been incurred prior to the date of submission of the application may be reimbursed.

The agreement referred to in Article 225(8) shall include provisions that allow verifying that the conditions for the award of lump sums, flat-rate financing or unit costs have been complied with.

The contributions shall be paid out in full through one single pre-financing payment, unless, in duly justified cases, the authorising officer responsible decides otherwise.

Contributions shall be spent in accordance with Article 222.

Any part of the contribution not used within the financial year covered by that contribution (year n) shall be spent on any reimbursable expenditure incurred by 31 December of year n+1. Any remaining part of the contribution that is not spent within that time limit shall be recovered in accordance with Chapter 6 of Title IV.

European political parties shall respect the maximum co-financing rate laid down in Article 17(4) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014. Remaining amounts of the contributions from the previous year shall not be used to finance the part which European political parties are to provide from their own resources. Contributions by third parties to joint events shall not be considered to be part of the own resources of a European political party.

European political parties shall use the part of the contribution that has not been used within the financial year covered by that contribution before using contributions awarded after that year.

Any interest yielded by the pre-financing payments shall be considered as part of the contribution.

A European political party shall, in accordance with Article 23 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014, submit its annual report on the use of the contribution and its annual financial statements for approval to the authorising officer responsible.

The annual activity report referred to in Article 74(9) shall be drafted by the authorising officer responsible on the basis of the annual report and the annual financial statements referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article. Other supporting documents may be used for the purposes of drafting that report.

The amount of the contribution shall not become final until the annual report and the annual financial statements referred to in Article 229(1) have been approved by the authorising officer responsible. Approval of the annual report and the annual financial statements shall be without prejudice to subsequent checks by the Authority.

Any unspent amount of pre-financing shall not become final until it has been used by the European political party to pay reimbursable expenditure which meets the criteria defined in the call for contributions.

Where the European political party fails to comply with its obligations related to the use of contributions, the contributions shall be suspended, reduced or terminated after the European political party has been given the opportunity to present its observations.

The authorising officer responsible shall verify before making a payment that the European political party is still registered in the Register referred to in Article 7 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014 and has not been the subject of any of the penalties provided for in Article 27 of that Regulation between the date of its application and the end of the financial year covered by the contribution.

Where the European political party is no longer registered in the Register referred to in Article 7 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014 or has been the subject of any of the penalties provided for in Article 27 of that Regulation, the authorising officer responsible may suspend, reduce or terminate the contribution and recover amounts unduly paid under the agreement referred to in Article 225(8) of this Regulation, in proportion to the seriousness of the errors, irregularities, fraud or other breach of obligations related to the use of contribution, after the European political party has been given the opportunity to present its observations.

Each agreement referred to in Article 225(8) shall provide expressly for the European Parliament to exercise its powers of control on documents and on the premises, as well as for OLAF and the Court of Auditors to exercise their respective competences and powers, referred to in Article 129, over all European political parties that have received Union funding, their contractors and subcontractors.

Administrative and financial penalties which are effective, proportionate and dissuasive may be imposed by the authorising officer responsible, in accordance with Articles 136 and 137 of this Regulation and with Article 27 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014.

Penalties referred to in paragraph 2 may also be imposed on European political parties which, at the moment of the submission of the application for contribution or after having received the contribution, made false declarations in supplying the information requested by the authorising officer responsible or failed to supply such information.

European political parties shall keep all records and supporting documents pertaining to the contribution for five years following the last payment related to the contribution.

Records related to audits, appeals, litigation, the settlement of claims arising out of the use of the contribution or to OLAF investigations, if notified to the recipient, shall be retained until the end of such audits, appeals, litigation, settlement of claims or investigations.

For emergency and post-emergency actions necessary to react to a crisis, or for thematic actions, the Commission may establish Union trust funds for external actions (‘Union trust funds’) under an agreement concluded with other donors.

The Commission shall submit its draft decisions concerning the financing of a Union trust fund to the competent committee where provided for in the basic act under which the Union contribution to the Union trust fund is provided. The competent committee shall not be invited to pronounce itself on the aspects which have already been submitted to the European Parliament and to the Council for consultation or for approval under the third, fourth and fifth subparagraphs of paragraph 1 respectively.

Union trust funds shall only be established and implemented subject to the following conditions:

A board chaired by the Commission shall be established for each Union trust fund to ensure a fair representation of the donors and to decide upon the use of the funds. The board shall include a representative of each non-contributing Member State as an observer. The rules for the composition of the board and its internal rules shall be laid down in the constitutive agreement of the Union trust fund. Those rules shall include the requirement that a vote in favour by the Commission is needed for the final adoption of the decision on the use of the funds.

Union trust funds shall be established for a limited duration as determined in their constitutive agreement. That duration may be extended by a decision of the Commission subject to the procedure set out in paragraph 1 upon request of the board of the Union trust fund concerned and upon presentation by the Commission of a report justifying the extension, confirming, in particular, that the conditions set out in paragraph 3 are complied with.

Union trust funds shall be implemented in accordance with the principles of sound financial management, transparency, proportionality, non-discrimination and equal treatment, and in accordance with the specific objectives defined in each constitutive agreement and in full respect of the rights of scrutiny and control of the Union contribution of the European Parliament and of the Council.

Actions financed under Union trust funds may be implemented directly by the Commission pursuant to point (a) of the first subparagraph of Article 62(1) and indirectly with the entities implementing Union funds pursuant to points (c)(i), (ii), (iii), (v), and (vi) of the first subparagraph of Article 62(1).

Funds shall be committed and paid by financial actors of the Commission, within the meaning of Chapter 4 of Title IV. The accounting officer of the Commission shall serve as the accounting officer of the Union trust funds. He or she shall be responsible for laying down accounting procedures and chart of accounts common to all Union trust funds. The Commission’s internal auditor, OLAF and the Court of Auditors shall exercise the same powers over Union trust funds as they do in respect of other actions carried out by the Commission.

The contributions of the Union and of other donors shall not be integrated in the budget and shall be lodged in a specific bank account. The specific bank account of the Union trust fund shall be opened and closed by the accounting officer. All transactions made on the specific bank account during the year shall be properly accounted for in the accounts of the Union trust fund.

The Commission shall be authorised to use a maximum of 5 % of the amounts pooled into the Union trust fund to cover its management costs from the years in which the contributions referred to in paragraph 4 have started to be used. Notwithstanding the first sentence and in order to avoid the double charging of costs, management costs arising from the Union contribution to the Union trust fund shall only be covered by that contribution to the extent that those costs have not already been covered by other budget lines. For the duration of the Union trust fund, such management fees shall be assimilated to assigned revenue within the meaning of point (a)(ii) of Article 21(2).

Where provided for in the relevant basic acts, the Commission may provide budget support to a third country where the following conditions are met:

The payment of the Union contribution shall be based on the fulfilment of the conditions referred to in paragraph 1, including the improvement of the management of public finances. In addition, some payments may also be conditional on the achievement of milestones, measured by objective performance indicators, reflecting results and reform progress over time in the respective sector.

In third countries, the Commission shall support the respect for the rule of law, the development of parliamentary control and audit and anti-corruption capacities and the increase of transparency and public access to information.

The corresponding financing agreements concluded with the third country shall contain:

For values below the thresholds referred to in Article 175(1) and on the basis of the procedure laid down in paragraph 3 of this Article, Union institutions may select remunerated external experts to assist them in the evaluation of grant applications, projects and tenders, and to provide opinions and advice in specific cases.

Remunerated external experts shall be remunerated on the basis of a fixed amount announced in advance and shall be chosen on the basis of their professional capacity. The selection shall be done on the basis of selection criteria respecting the principles of non-discrimination, equal treatment and absence of conflict of interests.

A call for expression of interest shall be published on the website of the Union institution concerned.

Any interested natural person may submit an application at any time during the period of validity of the call for expression of interest, with the exception of the last three months of that period.

Experts paid from research and technological development appropriations shall be recruited in accordance with the procedures laid down by the European Parliament and by the Council when they adopt each research framework programme or in accordance with the corresponding rules for participation. For the purpose of Section 2 of Chapter 2 of Title V, such experts shall be treated as recipients.

The financial statements shall be presented in millions of euro and in accordance with the accounting rules referred to in Article 80 and shall be comprised of:

The notes to the financial statements shall supplement and comment on the information presented in the statements referred to in paragraph 1 and shall supply all the additional information prescribed by the accounting rules referred to in Article 80 and the internationally accepted accounting practice where such information is relevant to the activities of the Union. The notes shall contain at least the following information:

The accounting officer shall, after the close of the financial year and up to the date of transmission of the general accounts, make any adjustments which, without involving disbursement or collection in respect of that year, are necessary for a true and fair view of those accounts.

The budget implementation reports shall be presented in millions of euro and shall be comparable year by year. They shall consist of:

The structure of the budget implementation reports shall be the same as that of the budget itself.

The budget implementation reports shall contain:

As regards information on revenue, a statement shall be attached to the budget implementation report showing, for each Member State, the breakdown of amounts of own resources still to be recovered at the end of the financial year and covered by a recovery order.

The accounting officers of the Union institutions other than the Commission and the bodies referred to in Article 241 shall, by 1 March of the following financial year, send their provisional accounts to the accounting officer of the Commission and to the Court of Auditors.

The accounting officers of the Union institutions other than the Commission and the bodies referred to in Article 241 shall, by 1 March of the following financial year, send the required accounting information for consolidation purposes to the accounting officer of the Commission, in the manner and format laid down by the latter.

The accounting officer of the Commission shall consolidate the provisional accounts referred to in paragraph 2 with the provisional accounts of the Commission and shall, by 31 March of the following financial year, send the provisional accounts of the Commission and the consolidated provisional accounts of the Union to the Court of Auditors by electronic means.

The Court of Auditors shall, by 1 June, make its observations on the provisional accounts of the Union institutions other than the Commission, and of each of the bodies referred to in Article 241, and, by 15 June, make its observations on the provisional accounts of the Commission and the consolidated provisional accounts of the Union.

The accounting officers of the Union institutions other than the Commission and of the bodies referred to in Article 241 shall, by 15 June, send the required accounting information to the accounting officer of the Commission, in the manner and format laid down by the latter, with a view to drawing up the final consolidated accounts.

The accounting officer of each Union institution and of each body referred to in Article 241 shall send to the Court of Auditors, with a copy to the accounting officer of the Commission, at the same date as the transmission of his or her final accounts, a representation letter covering those final accounts.

The accounting officer of the Commission shall draw up the final consolidated accounts on the basis of the information presented pursuant to paragraph 2 of this Article by the Union institutions other than the Commission, and by the bodies referred to in Article 241.

After approving the final consolidated accounts and its own final accounts, the Commission shall, by 31 July, send them by electronic means to the European Parliament, to the Council and to the Court of Auditors.

The final consolidated accounts shall be published by 15 November in the Official Journal of the European Union together with the statement of assurance given by the Court of Auditors in accordance with Article 287 TFEU and Article 106a of the Euratom Treaty.

By 31 July of the following financial year the Commission shall communicate to the European Parliament and to the Council an integrated set of financial and accountability reports which includes:

The integrated financial and accountability reporting referred to in paragraph 1 shall present each report in a separate and clearly identifiable manner. Each individual report shall be made available to the European Parliament, to the Council and to the Court of Auditors by 30 June, with the exception of the final consolidated accounts.

Each Union institution and each body referred to in Article 241 shall prepare a report on budgetary and financial management for the financial year.

The report referred to in paragraph 1 shall provide summary information on the transfers of appropriations among the various budgetary items.

The examination by the Court of Auditors of whether all revenue has been received and all expenditure incurred in a lawful and proper manner shall have regard to the Treaties, the budget, this Regulation, the delegated acts adopted pursuant to this Regulation and all other relevant acts adopted pursuant to the Treaties. That examination may take account of the multiannual character of programmes and related supervisory and control systems.

In the performance of its task, the Court of Auditors shall be entitled to consult, in the manner provided for in Article 257, all documents and information relating to the financial management by departments or bodies with regard to operations financed or co-financed by the Union. It shall have the power to hear any official responsible for a revenue or expenditure operation and to use any of the auditing procedures appropriate to those departments or bodies. The audit in Member States shall be carried out in liaison with the national audit institutions or, where they do not have the necessary powers, with the competent national departments. The Court of Auditors and the national audit institutions of Member States shall cooperate in a spirit of trust while maintaining their independence.

In order to perform its task, the Court of Auditors shall notify Union institutions and the authorities to which this Regulation applies of the names of the members of its staff who are empowered to audit them.